


these voices won't leave me alone

by sirensongs



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 06:51:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6108552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirensongs/pseuds/sirensongs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>lydia's friends know she's something. (college au)</p>
            </blockquote>





	these voices won't leave me alone

**Author's Note:**

> so hopefully you guys all like the way i characterize and the relationships. romance isn't happening just yet, obviously. let me know if you want me to keep writing!!

Lydia doesn’t know how this all started. All she knows is that this isn’t normal. She’s sitting there, stunned with her mouth hanging open.

“And that’s where we are now,” says Stiles. Stiles. Lydia has seen him around; she’d known his face even. Now, though, she’s seeing Stiles almost daily. And this time she knows it’s going to be even more frequent, if that’s possible.

“We have to figure out what you are, Lydia…” Allison looks down at her fingers, and Lydia frowns.

Sitting around the Starbucks table, from Lydia’s left: Allison, Scott, Stiles, Malia, Kira, Jordan and Aiden. It couldn’t get any weirder, Lydia thinks, though Jackson’s sudden reappearance would be the only thing to throw her anymore off her game.

From left to right:

Allison is Lydia’s best friend. She’s been her best friend since she was in first grade. Allison is always there for her. They both have crazy families and Allison always protects Lydia. Allison is _always_ there for Lydia. Except for the past ten months. Which was more Lydia’s fault than Allison’s. Allison’s dad sent her to France for a few months, God knows why. Right before, Lydia and Allison got into a fight. And then they proceeded not to speak until three weeks after Allison got back from France. They’d fought before, but never like that. Once Allison got back things began to change.

Enter Scott, Allison’s new boyfriend. She’d started to date him a couple days after she got back and enrolled at Berkeley. He’s caring and he’s really nice and, Lydia thinks, genuine.

Enter Stiles, Scott’s spastic and sarcastic best friend. He tries Lydia’s nerves more often than not and she’s pretty sure sometimes he’s trying to flirt.

Malia and Kira, who Lydia became friends with during the ten months she wasn’t speaking to Allison. When Allison got back, she insisted she was glad Lydia had made new friends and they all tried to hang out together as much as possible. Allison and Lydia’s bond strengthened back to its original state almost immediately and Allison took Kira and Malia on as her friends, too.

Jordan, who Lydia doesn’t remember inviting to this little pow-wow, works at the agency Lydia is interning at. Why he’s here is beyond her. They hardly speak, just the occasional joke and they’re connected on LinkedIn. Weird. Right?

Aiden is in Lydia’s business calculus course. Again, she doesn’t know why he’s there.

“My grandma has mentioned that I could be psychic,” Lydia notes. One of her best friends, Rebekah, had joked that Lydia could be psychic too.

“You think it’s possible?” Jordan perks up. “I think it makes sense.”

“I don’t think she’s a psychic,” Stiles says. 

Lydia rolls her eyes. “Stiles, you don’t have to talk about me like I’m not sitting right across from you.”

Kira smiles at that. 

“So we have a werewolf,” Lydia purses her lips at Scott and then looks to Aiden. “Two werewolves.”

She nods and then looks around the table. “A huntress, a human, a _kitsune_ , a werecoyote and… Jordan, you’re…?”  
  
“We don’t know yet,” Scott and Stiles say at the same time as Jordan sighs.

“Yeah, this is completely normal,” Lydia scoffs. “If it weren’t for the shrieking voices and pounding headaches, I’d think you’re all god damn insane.”

Allison reaches for Lydia’s hand. “Lydia, we have to figure out what’s going on with you.”  
  
“How the hell are we going to?” Malia slams her fists on the table. “Lydia, you are pretty much one of my best friends—”

Lydia smiles.    

“But I have no clue how we’re supposed to figure this out,” Malia says. 

Everyone at the table frowns. 

“It’s a funny coincidence,” Lydia says, raising a brow. “That I have no clue why you even came with them and you have no clue what you even are…”

“It’s like I was drawn to Scott one day. And then…” 

“To me.” Lydia nods slowly. “I know the feeling.” 

Kira looks to Scott and then looks down at her phone. “My mom is texting me. I have to go soon and FaceTime her.”

“The strictest mom in all of California,” Malia teases.

Kira turns red. “Listen, I’m going to go but just let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Lydia offers a reassuring smile and then stands up. “I’m not quite up for this right now, so I’m going to go too.”

Stiles stands up at this. “Lydia, you can’t. It’s not safe right now, it’s a…”

“It’s a _what_?” Lydia raises a brow.

“Full moon,” Aiden growls. 

“Full moons aren’t safe for supernatural creatures,” Allison warns.

Lydia bites her lip, smiling at the irony. “I’m not a fucking creature. I’m just… I’m just a girl, trying to get her shit together for her future. If you guys want to go out and rip each others’ throats out, that’s fine, but seeing as I haven’t transformed during a full moon yet, I’ll take my chances.”

Allison chases after Lydia once she’s already strutting down the cement path to the dorms.

“Lydia, please, they just want to help.”  
  
“Allison,” Lydia shakes Allison’s hand off her arm. “You are my best friend. You know that. But I can’t… I’ve accepted a lot. I’ve accepted that I have these… Intrusive voices, telling me things and scaring the hell out of me all the time, making me sweat and scream and lose my mind.”

“When I was gone…”  
  
“We’re not going to bring it up,” Lydia warns.

Allison’s eyes bulge. “Maybe it’s worth talking about, seriously. Did you… Did anything happen?"

Lydia closes her eyes, annoyed, and then opens them, grimacing. “What, Allison? When I was locked up in a mental institution for a week while you were in France? Did anything happen? No. Nothing too out of the ordinary." 

Allison and Lydia stand here for a moment, in silence.

“I’m going to the library,” Lydia says. “You can come if you want but I don’t want to talk about this stuff anymore tonight. I have things to do and the last thing I want to do is focus on this.”

Defeated, Allison nods. “I had plans with Scott… But if you want me to come with you I will.”

“I’ll be fine,” Lydia urges. “Go with Scott! Have some fun.”

Allison raises a brow.

“There are dumb, lonely frat guys who can’t solve a simple fourth derivative equation in the library who I’d be happy to tutor.” Lydia offers a smile and then pulls out her phone. “I’ll start swiping.”

“Okay, text me if you need anything. Love you.”  
  
“Love you,” Lydia calls, already heading toward the library and flicking her finger across her phone.

♡

“What’s going on?”

Lydia’s eyes are opening slowly and she’s realizing she’d back at home, in her old room.

“Mom?”

Natalie is sitting at the end of Lydia’s bed. “You’re okay, Lydia.”

“What’s going on?” She repeats.

“Allison brought you home last night. Do you remember anything?”

“Allison?” Lydia looks around.

“She went to go see her family while you rested, I’ll text her for you now, I told her I would when you woke up, okay?”

Lydia nods. “Why am I home?”

“I don’t know, Lydia.” Natalie looks worried. “I thought you’d have some recollection. Allison said you begged her to bring you here…”

“I’ll talk to her about it.”

Natalie’s face hardens a little. “Lydia, are you drinking a lot or something?”

“Not a lot!” Lydia sits up, rubbing at her head, which is pounding. “I’ve just been really stressed out… Like, really stressed.”

Natalie shakes her head. “I told you! All of those commitments. It’s insane. Five classes? An internship? President of a club? And two jobs?”

“One job is only on weekends,” Lydia protests. “It’s all necessary.”

“Just relax, okay? Allison will be here in a little bit. Do you want some water?”

“Yes,” Lydia manages.

♡

“Why did you bring me home?” Lydia whispers once Allison is in her room and the door is shut. 

“Lydia, do you not remember anything from last night?”

Lydia shakes her head. 

“There’s something… Something that happened, Lydia.” Allison frowns. “I don’t know how to tell you, because it’s shocking.” 

Just then, Lydia’s phone lights up on her bedside table. A text from her friend Caroline: “Did you hear?”

Lydia ignores it, looking to Allison. “What?”

“It might be best for you to just relax.”

“I am relaxed!”

Allison narrows her eyes. “You’re definitely on edge.”

“Just tell me what happened!”

Softly, Allison exhales. “A student jumped from the roof of the library…”

“Oh my God…” Lydia’s eyes go wide. “Oh my God, that’s awful.”

Allison nods and Lydia only tilts her head, eyes focused. “But that doesn’t explain why we’re here, in Beacon Hills, in my room.”

“I brought you home because… Because you were on the roof, Lydia. You screamed and somehow Scott and Aiden found you, standing there looking over the edge at the body. It’s a miracle they found you before anyone else did, honestly.”

“What the hell…” Lydia bites her lip. “I don’t understand. Why would I be on the roof? And why wouldn’t I remember?”

“I don’t know, Lydia.” Allison frowns. “I have no idea.”

***

Lydia decides, for some strange reason, that the best way to distract herself is to turn on a Drake playlist and go for a run. So she does. She ties up her running shoes and yells to her mom that she’ll be back in a bit.

The thing is, Lydia hates to run, absolutely hates it. But sometimes it helps her clear her mind. At this particular point in time, she needs all the help she can get with that. She feels a sickness consuming her whole body. It feels like guilt, like she’s done something wrong, but it is worse than guilt. It’s like darkness.

Lydia starts to run.

After a couple minutes, she notices her.

Ever since Lydia was a little girl, there was one particular girl who would sometimes stand next to a tree and talk to it. She’d stand outside talking to the tree or on her toy phone. Every time she saw Lydia running toward her, she’d run to her backyard and slip through the fence.

This time she doesn’t move, she turns away from the tree and looks at Lydia.

Lydia slows as she reaches the girl. Her features are distinct. Her eyes are wide and her fingers are trembling.

“Lydia,” the girl says over and over again. Lydia finally pulls out her earphones.

“How do you know my name?” Lydia pants.

“They told me,” she says.

“Who told you?” Lydia looks around.

“They did,” the girl says.

It’s as she gets closer that Lydia realizes she’s not a girl, not really, but a woman. “Who told you my name?”

The woman clutches her ears and howls something. “Lydia!”

“What?” Lydia rushes closer and frantically tries to ignore the buzzing and clamoring noises in her head.

“You’re going to save them all,” the woman says. She lets her hands fall to her sides. “The wailing woman. The harbinger who can stop The Eternal.”

Lydia looks at the woman as she falls to the ground and lays back, her eyes rolling back.

“Meredith?” A voice is coming from the backyard. “Meredith?!”

Lydia looks over and sees a nurse rushing out from the fence. “Oh no! Meredith!”

Meredith looks to Lydia and shakes her head. “But don’t forget to listen or they will all die.”

“What?” Lydia crouches down, the nurse approaching quickly. “Who’s going to die?”

“Everyone,” the woman whispers.

“I’m sorry miss,” the nurse rushes over and picks up the woman called Meredith. “She’s not very well.” She looks down to Meredith and smiles, “come on, let’s go inside.”

Lydia stands there in shock as she’s left alone next to the tree. There, carved in the bark, is a screaming face.

The wailing woman. The harbinger. Lydia knows what that means.

 **Banshee.**  

**Author's Note:**

> so this chapter is the first i've written. i definitely want to keep writing but it's tricky with AUs because idk if you guys like it so if you do want more, please tell me!


End file.
